The stories of the rogue sorcerer Simon Magus and his consort Helen, which showcased the early battles between religion and magic, have often captured the imagination of artists and writers.
Folklore
In Irish mythology, Mug Ruith is said to have been a student of Simon Magus, who taught him his magic skills and helped him build the flying machine roth rámach. Mug Ruith's daughter Tlachtga was raped by the three sons of Simon Magus and returned to Ireland where she gave birth to triplets on the hill that would bear her name.
Theatre and poetry
In Canto XIX of the Divine Comedy's Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Simon is in the third bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell. Simon and Helen appear in Christus: A Mystery and Helen of Tyre by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Faust
Many aspects of the life of Simon Magus are echoed in the later Faust legend of Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Hans Jonas writes, "surely few admirers of Marlowe's and Goethe's plays have an inkling that their hero is the descendant of a gnostic sectary, and that the beautiful Helen called up by his art was once the fallen Thought of God through whose raising mankind was to be saved." The presence of Helen of Troy. The name "Faustus" ("the favored one"), both as a possible appellation of Simon in Rome, and with a person by that name appearing in the Clementine literature. Later, Augustine of Hippo became a fierce opponent of a certain Faustus the Manichean. The homunculus. Faust is employed by the Emperor, just as Simon is employed by Nero. The ascent of Gretchen and Faust past the demons of Mephistopheles in Faust Part One and Faust Part Two, respectively, can be seen as mirroring the descent of the Ennoia and Simon past the world-creating angels. Additionally, the passage wherein Mephistopheles is distracted by the allures of seductive angels has its parallel in the Ennoia arousing desires in the world-creating angels who prevent her initial ascent.
Opera
Simon is the principal villain in Arrigo Boito’s opera, Nerone (“Nero”).
Film
Simon Magus is portrayed as a pivotal character, "Simon the Magician," played by Jack Palance, in the 1954 movie The Silver Chalice (which also debuted a young Paul Newman). In the 1997 movie The Saint during the opening scene, the protagonist Simon Templar refers to himself as Simon Magus, the magician. In the 1999 movie Simon Magus, the mystery of Simon Magus is set in contemporary Paris.
Television
In the Year Two Space: 1999 episode "New Adam, New Eve", an extraterrestrial called "Magus" pretends to be God in front of the terrestrial inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, but, when it is revealed that he is not the Lord, he tries to search pity in the Alphans by saying that he was, among the others who tried to imitate God, Simon Magus.